In media, Long Island is often painted out to be a New York City suburb. While technically true, Long Island has also been at the epicenter of many cultural movements over the past century. It was an important to the development of aviation during the early 20th Century, as Charles Lindbergh lifted off from Roosevelt Field in 1927. It was the place of origin for countless winners of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. Hip-hop, punk rock, classic literature, and stand-up comedy all have roots in Nassau and Suffolk County. The Great Gatsby, The Godfather and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind are just a few of the influential works that use Long Island as a setting.

Our website was launched in April 2016 with the mission of celebrating both the history of Long Island and what's ahead for it. Its main focus is on entertainment, from providing content that is entertaining, to featuring Island-related events and personalities. While written by Long Islanders -- past and present -- the content is intended for readers all over the world. We leave the politics and hard news to the other publications...unless they happen to be entertaining.

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Oct 27

Oct 27 Daniel Trevino on SoBi Long Beach, cycling on the boardwalk, and more

The warm weather of 2016 is presumably behind of us, but it has been a wonderfully warm autumn so far. In turn, I still find myself on the boardwalk of Long Beach often, and have noticed that SoBi Long Beach still has its bicycles outside throughout the city. In turn, I was curious to find out whether those bikes are going to be out all year.

On behalf of No Place Like Long Island, I spoke with Daniel Trevino, the Operations Director of SoBi Long Beach. Daniel not only explained how long the bikes will be outside for, but how SoBi works altogether. He also provided some cool stats: in 2016, the bikes of SoBi logged over 75,000 miles over the course of 24,000 trips.

How did SoBi Long Beach come about? Did the city seek you out? Was there a petition or demand from the town?

DT: Correct, the City of Long Beach put out an RFP for equipment and operations of a bike share system in the city. Social Bicycles won that RFP and is currently operating the system and managing day to day activities.

Where else does SoBi currently have bike share programs at the moment?

DT: We have 35 different systems, in 25 cities, in 5 countries, you can check specifics at www.socialbicycles.com/#where. Our biggest systems are in Portland, Hamilton [Canada], as well as the L.A. County region.

A lot of New Yorkers first learned of bike sharing through the Citi Bike program. How would you describe what SoBi has to offer?

DT: Social Bicycles is the world pioneer in smart bikeshare technology. With out technology, we put all the electronics on the bike. We have the ability to have real-time GPS tracking on the bikes, integrated lock system and active ride data collection.

SoBi Long Beach's kiosks mention that it is $50 for a season pass. Does that mean quarterly? When do the seasons start and end?

DT: SoBi Long Beach has two plans only. The pay-as-you-go plan is $8 an hour, prorated to the minute. The seasonal plan is $50 and it includes an hour of riding per day throughout the season. Every hour ridden past the included hour of riding is billed at the rate of $8 an hour, prorated to the minute. The season started on March 28th and will end on November 30th.

I still see the bikes present on the Long Beach boardwalk. Is SoBi Long Beach going to be present the whole year through the winter?

DT: Nope, bikes will be brought to storage for the winter, be given maintenance and will be deployed again next spring.

Are there any special events coming up for SoBi? Or is the focus on bicycles?

DT: We have participated in local bicycle rides such as the C.U.R.B. ride and have done a few community outreach efforts.

For a person to get a SoBi program into their town, what needs to happen?

DT: There needs to be political will and funds available for deployment and to cover capital costs. Usually this process is solicited via an RFP.

Is there something you wish more people knew about SoBi?

DT: I think that it is really cool that when people sign up and create a membership, they can view in their profile the amount of miles they've ridden, calories burned, and amount of money saved on gas!

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 15 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. In the years following, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer.

Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Downtown Magazine, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Format Magazine, Businessweek, The Improper, the L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. He is a member of the SATW and the IFWTWA organizations as a food and travel writer.

Darren is also the host the recently-launched "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio.

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 15 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. In the years following, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer.

Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Downtown Magazine, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Format Magazine, Businessweek, The Improper, the L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. He is a member of the SATW and the IFWTWA organizations as a food and travel writer.

Darren is also the host the recently-launched "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio.